Fine-grained control of data placement

• US 9,547,446 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2016
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chambliss, David D., Garmiza, Ehood, Shalev, Leah
• Primary Examiner(s): THAI, TUAN V
• Application Number:
  US15/047,593
• Publication Number:
  US 20160170660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 334 Days
• Field of Search: 711/100, 711/114, 711/154, 711/200
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0614 Improving the reliability of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include defining, in a storage system including multiple storage devices, multiple redundant array of independent disks (RAID) configurations for data stored on the storage devices. A first one of the multiple RAID configurations is assigned to a first entry in a partition table having multiple entries. Assigning the first one of the multiple RAID configurations to the first entry in the partition table comprises modifying an existing RAID configuration for the first entry. Data referenced by the existing RAID configuration is migrated to the modified RAID configuration.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

defining, in a storage system comprising multiple storage devices, multiple redundant array of independent disks (RAID) configurations for data stored on the storage devices;

assigning, to a first entry in a partition table having multiple entries, a first one of the multiple RAID configurations;

wherein assigning the first one of the multiple RAID configurations to the first entry in the partition table comprises modifying an existing RAID configuration for the first entry, and comprising migrating the data referenced by the existing RAID configuration to the modified RAID configuration.

2. The method of claim 1, and comprising assigning, to a second entry in the partition table, a second one of the multiple RAID configurations that is independent from the first one of the multiple RAID configurations.

3. The method according to claim 1, and comprising performing a usage analysis on the partition table, and identifying, based on the analysis, one of the multiple RAID configurations for each of the entries in the partition table.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the first one of the multiple RAID configurations comprises the identified one of the RAID configurations for the first entry, and the second one of the multiple RAID configurations comprises the identified one of the RAID configurations for the second entry.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the multiple RAID configurations is selected from a list comprising storage device types and RAID levels.

6. A storage system, comprising:

multiple storage devices; and

a processor configured to define multiple redundant array of independent disks (RAID) configurations for data stored on the storage devices, to assign, to a first entry in a partition table having multiple entries, a first one of the multiple RAID configurations;

wherein the processor is configured to assign the first one of the multiple RAID configurations to the first entry in the partition table by modifying an existing RAID configuration for the first entry, and wherein the processor is configured to migrate the data referenced by the existing RAID configuration to the modified RAID configuration.

7. The storage system according to claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to assign, to a second entry in the partition table, a second one of the multiple RAID configurations that is independent from the first one of the multiple RAID configurations.

8. The storage system according to claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to perform usage analysis on the partition table, and to identify, based on the analysis, one of the multiple RAID configurations for each of the entries in the partition table.

9. The storage system according to claim 8, wherein the first one of the multiple RAID configurations comprises the identified one of the RAID configurations for the first entry, and the second one of the multiple RAID configurations comprises the identified one of the RAID configurations for the second entry.

10. The storage system according to claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to select each of the multiple RAID configurations from a list comprising storage device types and RAID levels.

11. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to define, in a storage system comprising multiple storage devices, multiple redundant array of independent disks (RAID) configurations for data stored on the storage devices;

computer readable program code configured to assign, to a first entry in a partition table having multiple entries, a first one of the multiple RAID configurations;

wherein the computer readable program code configured to assign the first one of the multiple RAID configurations to the first entry in the partition table by modifying an existing RAID configuration for the first entry, and comprising computer readable program code configured to migrate the data referenced by the existing RAID configuration to the modified RAID configuration.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, and comprising computer readable program code configured to assign, to a second entry in the partition table, a second one of the multiple RAID configurations that is independent from the first one of the multiple RAID configurations.

13. The computer program product according to claim 11, and comprising computer readable program code configured to perform in a usage analysis on the partition table, and computer readable program code configured to identify, based on the analysis, one of the multiple RAID configurations for each of the entries in the partition table.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the first one of the multiple RAID configurations comprises the identified one of the RAID configurations for the first entry, and the second one of the multiple RAID configurations comprises the identified one of the RAID configurations for the second entry.

15. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to select each of the multiple RAID configurations from a list comprising storage device types and RAID levels.